US Open: Ranking the five biggest threats to pull off late upsets

As the US Open nears its later rounds, here are the five biggest threats to pull off upset wins on their ways to deep tournament runs.

5. Alex de Minaur

De Minaur has played extremely well this week; he’s currently tied the best Grand Slam finish of his career (2019 US Open 4R). In his victory over 11th-seeded Karen Kachanov in Round 3, de Minaur won 60% of points off of his second serve to go along with an overall strong performance on serve, as well.

The 21-year-old was been able to put together a few strong matches to begin the year, taking down Alexander Zverev and Denis Shapovalov in the ATP Cup before narrowly losing to Rafael Nadal in three sets. Since then, however, he struggled a bit, especially last week against Struff in the first round. Characteristic of players with supreme athleticism and court coverage, though, it’s usually the key to either winning or losing a match.

De Minaur has a question mark of an opponent in his fourth-round matchup. Vasek Pospisil, another surprise fourth-rounder, has been playing some of the best tennis of his career these last few days with wins over Milos Raonic and Roberto Bautista Agut, with the winner set up for a potential match against either Dominic Thiem or Felix Auger-Alissime.